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Abbotsford, B.C

I once heard it said by someone that growing giant pumpkins is an art, with very little science involved. I can't help but agreeing with this statement. Tons of information is available if you want to learn how to grow giant pumpkins; this website, Don Langevin's books, other websites, and of course, other growers. One of the very first things you learn is that to start a giant pumpkin seed, the optimum air temperature is 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Sounds good, and for all of my pumpkin seeds, it has worked marvelously well. But is there actually any study that shows that this really is the case? The next thing you learn about is the pumpkin plant’s need for lots of sunlight. Makes sense. As any good gardener should know, the more sun, the more the plants grow. But again, is there any scientific study to actually show that this is true with giant pumpkins? From what I have been able to find (which isn't much), I doubt it. For most people, growing giant pumpkins is all about the art.

I was recently thinking about this. I am still in school, taking many science-related courses. I plan to go to university upon graduating and pursue more science-related studies. I was mulling over in my head a while back about having to do a science project, giant pumpkins, and science in general, when I hit upon a capital idea that I have termed, "The Giant Pumpkin Project". While this project would not be finished in time for the science project I was originally thinking of, it could still be entered in next years science fair. In addition, it would be something that I would enjoy working on, and with the cooperating of some of the other giant pumpkin lovers on bigpumpkins.com, I could produce a great project.

5/23/2006 9:58:21 PM

Abbotsford, B.C

The scientific question I am posing for this project is "What are the optimum conditions for growing a giant pumpkin plant?" Some of the topics I would cover are light, temperature, amount of water, humidity, temperature required for germination, fertilization requirements, you name it, I want to include it all. Obviously a project of this magnitude will take quite a large amount of time to do, which is why I am starting it right now, not the next time I have a science project due!

Now I'll bet you are wondering "What does this have to do with us?" Good question. What I am going to ask you to do is quite simple, and something any serious grower should be doing anyways. I would like any grower interested in participating in this project to simply download the grower pumpkin diary from www.mainepumpkins.com, and actually use it. Fill it out! Besides being of invaluable aid to my project, it will actually help make you a better grower. The ability to compare from year to year, know what you did wrong last year so you can change things THIS year are among the many benefits you will get from using it. At the end of the season (whenever that happens to be for you; for me it is the end of October), type up a quick paragraph of how your season went [what you amended the soil with, how the season progressed, any major damage that occurred to plant, pumpkins final weights, etc] and send it to my email at

pumpkinguy_31@hotmail.com

5/23/2006 9:58:37 PM

Abbotsford, B.C

And another thing; I don't just have to have results from this year! I am sure there are growers out there who have already filled out such diaries/record keeping charts. PLEASE send them to me if you do! The more information that I can obtain, the better the project will be. As well, if you know about science experiments that have been done about giant pumpkins or other Curcurbita maxima species, I would love to see them. Just email the links and/or documents that tell about them to the email address I have shown above.

And finally, if you have any suggestions on how to improve the project, don't be afraid to speak up! While I have only touched on the highlights here as to what the project will contain, there may be something I have not thought of. Being the type of project it is, right now all I am involved in is data collection. Once I have the data, I will start looking through it all for patterns, making zone graphs for temperature, amount of sun, and other factors, as well as graphs relating all of the different factors involved in growing giant pumpkins to the final weight of the pumpkin. I may even include some probability calculations in the chart. Like I said before, I want this to be a complete project. All-encompassing. If I am able to carry through with my project, and it turns out quite well, it could be a useful aid to serious giant pumpkin growers to consult.

Thanks very much in advance to everybody who helps out in this project. Yours truly,

Cameron Carnegie

5/23/2006 9:58:51 PM

Abbotsford, B.C

P.S. I am simply posting in other boards besides the General Discussion so that growers who normally frequent only specific message boards see this message too. I know for myself that I only visit certain message boards, and I want as many people as possible to see this. Please direct all replies to the posting on the General Discussion message post, as this will make it much easier to look at the replies.

5/23/2006 10:01:13 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Hi Cameron. I am assuming you are in high school. Let me be the first to congratulate you on your ambitious project. I see you are not in college yet though. Do you know what an abstract is? That would be where you give a brief summary of the type of study you plan on conducting, and state your hypothesis for the study. Scientists do this if they are applying for a research grant. You are concentrating on a data research/modeling type of study as opposed to an experimental type. That is wise considering the type of plants we grow. I would like to try and persuade you to limit this study to a certain aspect of growth. Legitimate studies, those worthy of peer reviewed journals, are only concerned with one single point of interest. Most projects are deemed inconclusive if they try to encompass too many factors. So, long story long, I will help you with your project but please don't go overboard. Send me an email if you have questions about scientific method. Often times, designing the project takes longer than it does to complete it. What grade are you in and what type of science fair are we talking about? Jim Gerhardt

5/23/2006 10:31:06 PM

Greencastle, PA

Jim makes a good point. You're looking at too many variables. Plus, what would you use as your control group and how would your experimental group(s) differ? Giant pumpkins are a great subject though. I did a project this year on hybrid vigor in AGs and won first place in the senior botany division and got special prizes for biology and botany which included $500 cash. Nice trophy and certificates too.
Tom

5/24/2006 7:23:58 PM